Deputy dog gets highest police honor

Lt. Richard Burdick wakes up every morning and thinks about Kenzo, the 9-year-old German shepherd that saved his life.

If Kenzo hadn't been there when the firefight broke out, Burdick believes he could have died on June 4, his 51st birthday. Instead, he took a bullet to the leg — Kenzo took two to the chest.

"Every day I wake up is an extra day," Burdick said at a Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office awards ceremony, where hundreds of deputies gathered to recognize stellar examples of heroism in the line of duty.

Sheriff Ric Bradshaw awarded Kenzo two of the top honors that can be awarded to any deputy: a Combat Cross, the equivalent of the military's Purple Heart, and the Medal of Honor, the highest honor in law enforcement.

"He's the star of the show," Bradshaw said of Kenzo. "He took two bullets and kept on going ... What he did was beyond reasonable."

The day that forever formed a bond between Kenzo, his handler Deputy Richard Klaysmat, and the other deputies began like most — with a 9-1-1 call.

The report came from a trailer park near Greenacres, where a man allegedly had shot a woman, dragged her into the road and shot her again before running away.

Deputies rushed to the trailer park and immediately surrounded the area.

Within seconds, Klaysmat saw the suspect, later identified as Armando Gonzalez Felipe, jump over a wall and try to flee.

Klaysmat, Burdick and Deputy David Rutherford decided they'd send Kenzo to scan the area for the gunman.

Shortly after Klaysmat let his dog go, Kenzo began to go through a broken gap in the cement wall, and something alerted him. He looked right, and so did the deputies.

There was a burst of gunshots.

Concealed behind the wall, Felipe sprayed 40 rounds at Kenzo and the deputies.

Burdick took one bullet in the leg, while another bullet hit his handcuff case. One bullet tore through Kenzo's torso and exited the other side. Another bullet lodged into his chest.

The deputies fired back and killed Felipe.

Kenzo was rushed to an animal hospital, where a doctor removed the bullet from his chest. At a hospital across town, another doctor removed the bullet from Burdick's thigh.

Doctors say Kenzo's wounds barely missed his vital organs.

But Kenzo was back on the job two months later.

Those two bullets could have hit deputies, Bradshaw said. But it appeared Kenzo distracted the gunman from shooting at deputies first. Kenzo did his job, which so often can be fatal.

Months after the incident, Kenzo's handler still hasn't parted with the emotions he felt riding with his dog to the hospital. Nothing compares, Klaysmat said, to the thought of losing a partner.

"I've trained three dogs, and I never thought my dog would save my life," said Klaysmat, who also received a Combat Cross. "He did really good."

At 9, Kenzo is nearing the end of his career. He's 81 in dog years. Klaysmat has moved on to other dogs before, but it never gets easier.